Space Efficiency on a Budget

When unpacking a new home, it always seems like there's too much stuff and not enough places to put it. Saving space in cabinets and closets can be an essential skill to have, especially when living in a smaller house or apartment. There are a plethora of tips, tricks, and ideas to help you save that precious, much-needed space so that you can find room for all of your essentials.

Saving space is all about being organized. If you can find the right materials and products to get your things organized, space will be naturally conserved, and you have room for more things. The only limits are your own creativity, imagination, and ingenuity.

The most important tip to get you started would be to store vertically as much as you can. The more stacking you're able to do, the more horizontal space you will have for all of your things. A lot of products you need to organize your things and save some space can be found at the dollar store. Magazine holders, bins, totes, and shoe racks can all be used to save you loads of space and hassle while sifting through your things later.

Magazine holders can be used in countless places throughout the home. You can organize flip-flops and ballet flats in your closet. Stand them all up side by side and all of those small pairs of shoes you have now have a permanent home, rather than just being tossed on the floor, wasting closet – or hallway – floor space. This will also, as a side bonus, protect your small shoes from unnecessary wear and tear so they’ll last you longer. You can also attach magazine holders to the inside of lower cabinet doors in the kitchen to hold those long skinny boxes of plastic wrap and aluminum foil. This saves precious drawer space in your kitchen. They can also hold cutting boards or lids for your pots and pans. If you have a sturdy magazine holder, turn it sideways and mount the back and bottom sides of the magazine holder to the wall in a corner. Now, you have a floating shelf! This makes a great functional nightstand if you don’t have space for a bulky standard one. You can also mount several in a small corner otherwise unused as shelves for storage for small things. One example could be a corner near or behind your front door, now you have a place for keys and wallets right by the door. Another example could be a corner of a laundry room for the detergent or laundry sheets. The possibilities are endless.

Another product you can find for cheap that will help organize and save space is dresser and cabinet hardware. The knobs you put on dressers can be used so many ways. You can glue them to the wall or to a board mounted on the wall and you have a cute place to hang a variety of items. You can hang jewelry in the closet, coats, and bags by the front door, or scarves with your other accessories.

Tension rods are a great tool to help organize space. If you put small hooks on it and hang the rod above the walk-in closet door you have a space for your hats or scarves. You can also place an extra tension rod in the shower and you can hang soaps and cleansers and other essentials from small bins, or clips.

Utensil organizers are not just for forks and knives. You can use them for makeup brushes, or other small bathroom items such as lotions toothpaste or makeup. Figuring out the best way to organize those small things is key when trying to conserve as much drawer and cabinet space as you possibly can.

At any department store, there are canvas or plastic shoe hangers. You hang them from a door or a rod in the closet and it has pouches that are the ideal size to hold your shoes. But they can fit much more than just shoes. You can use it to store cleaning products in the laundry room or linen closet. You can also organize your snacks in the pantry. Sometimes those small bags are tough to keep organized. The case is the same with those small seasoning packets. A pantry can be full of small packages and bags that are difficult to organize. The shoe storage will solve that problem! You can also use it for jewelry. Baby clothes are another a great option. You can organize the little pants and onesies by size or color or style or all of the above!

Another general tip is to use the inside of those kitchen or bathroom cabinet doors as much as you possibly can. Attaching spice holders, tiny shelves, or the above-mentioned magazine holder, to the door will save space on the actual shelf inside the cabinet for bigger items and will look much more organized.

Inside those cabinets, especially with dishes, there can be a lot of unused vertical space. You can find stackable wire shelves to put inside the cabinet and use all of the vertical space you can. You can also find wire shelves that actually hang down from the shelf above, which is handy if you don’t want to deal with the little legs from the stackable shelves.

Sometimes the space in the trunk of the car can get taken up quickly, or just get unorganized and out of hand. Use plastic totes to hold items like emergency blankets, water, or a first aid kit.

Clear plastic totes have a ton of useful functions as well. Using those totes in closets for smaller items is a great way to keep them organized and save that closet space. There are also totes that are long and short that fit ideally under the bed. This is great for storing seasonal clothing, or other items you don’t use very often. It is much better if you can keep those things out of the way as much as possible.

All of these ideas are going to help keep your home well organized and save you a lot of precious space. Hopefully, these ideas can get you started, and jump-start some creative juices to get even more space saving ideas working in your home.